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Adobe Headquarters Awarded Highest Green Building Honors

Adobe Systems has been awarded LEED Platinum certifications for Adobe's East and Almaden headquarters towers in downtown San Jose, distinguishing Adobe as the world’s first commercial enterprise to achieve a total of three platinum certifications under the LEED program.

Adobe Systems has been awarded LEED Platinum certifications for Adobe's East and Almaden headquarters towers in downtown San Jose, distinguishing Adobe as the world’s first commercial enterprise to achieve a total of three platinum certifications under the LEED program.

Adobe’s West Tower was awarded Platinum certification in July 2006.

"The LEED certifications are a validation of Adobe’s ongoing efforts to promote environmental stewardship and create healthy work environments for our employees," said Bruce Chizen, CEO of Adobe. “We are proud to have achieved this level of success through our green practices and hope our accomplishments will serve as a role model for the global business community.”

The LEED Green Building Rating System is a voluntary, consensus-based national standard for developing high-performance, sustainable buildings. The rating system was designed by leading experts in the construction industry to promote buildings that are economically profitable, environmentally friendly, healthy and productive places to work. Platinum certification of Adobe’s Almaden and East Towers was based on ratings in six categories: sustainability; water efficiency; energy efficiency and atmospheric quality; use of materials and resources; indoor environmental quality; and innovations in upgrades, operations and maintenance.

“With the certification of Adobe’s Almaden and East Towers, Adobe has again raised the bar for other companies seeking to introduce sustainable, environmentally-friendly practices into their facilities,” said Rick Fedrizzi, president of the U.S. Green Building Council. “The USGBC is honored to congratulate Adobe on its substantial achievements. Not only has Adobe achieved the highest environmental honor for a commercial building with the West Tower Platinum certification, but these two additional certifications make Adobe the only company in the world to have three LEED Platinum buildings.”

To achieve Platinum certification of the East and Almaden Towers, which opened in 1998 and 2003 respectively, Adobe invested approximately $650,000 for energy and environmental retrofits since 2001. These retrofits have resulted in approximately $728,000 in savings to date, for a total return on investment of approximately 115 percent. Working with facilities management firm Cushman & Wakefield, Adobe implemented a variety of projects, including: installation of drought tolerant landscaping, installation of an irrigation system linked to local weather stations which automatically adjusts according to real-time weather conditions; and use of sensors to monitor carbon monoxide levels and adjust operation of building exhaust fans accordingly. Adobe also increased its use of outdoor air and enhanced the overall maintenance of its air systems, resulting in better indoor air quality.

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